Judge Seen as Conservative, Fair

The 50-year-old jurist, who also teaches Sunday school, comes across as a mainstream conservative.

She is not known for making provocative speeches -- unlike California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, another Bush nominee. Nor are Owen's opinions filled with sharp jabs like those of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Instead, she has made her mark by writing or joining scores of legal opinions that have made it harder for consumers and other plaintiffs to sue businesses in Texas.

"She is a thorough and careful judge who works hard and wrestles with every case," former Texas Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips said Wednesday. He rejected the notion that Owen was a right-wing activist who put politics before the law.

"She is a very good lawyer, and I don't think it's easy to typecast her," said Phillips, who is seen as a moderate.

Texas justices "tend to deal with interpreting statutes, not with big constitutional issues," he said. "But I never saw her as being on some sort of personal crusade."

The Texas Supreme Court does not handle criminal cases or death penalty appeals. Its docket is filled with civil disputes, many involving business.

In the 1980s, it was known as a populist, pro-plaintiff court that was friendly to trial lawyers. The justices regularly upheld huge money verdicts against corporations. Business interests set out to replace them with jurists who would favor companies.

Owen, an oil-and-gas lawyer from Houston, was elected in 1994 in the midst of a Republican sweep that brought George W. Bush to the governor's mansion. Today, the entire court is conservative.

"I'm surprised Priscilla has become a poster child in this dispute," said former state Justice Craig T. Enoch. "It's fair to say she is conservative, but it is also true the electorate in this state wanted judges who will carefully follow the law. I had disagreements with her, but even when I thought she was wrong, I thought her position was reasonable. She was respectful of her colleagues. There was no intemperate language or personal attacks."